Category: theatre

“[Paul] Crewes, formerly the head of the innovative, Tony-nominated U.K.-based company Kneehigh Theatre, is something of a ‘get’ for the Wallis [Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills] … When it opened in 2013 after more than a decade of fundraising and planning, the more than $70-million startup got off to a bumpy start . While its campus was tricked out with two theaters, costume, wig and prop shops, an educational wing, a spacious promenade terrace and sculpture garden, it didn’t have an artistic director until now.”

Reputations, he knew, were built up only to be torn down: “A lot of playwrights become confused by this and they start doing imitations of what they’ve done before, or they try to do something entirely different, in which case they get accused by the same critics of not doing what they used to do so well.”

“That theme of kindness and cruelty acting in tandem with one another — that ‘teaching emotion’ — was an idea that recurred in his work again and again.”

“Earlier this month, the owners of 54 Below decided to cancel the concert, set for Sept. 11, titled ‘Broadway Supports Black Lives Matter,’ saying in a statement that they supported the Black Lives Matter movement but disagreed with a ‘platform that accuses Israel of genocide and endorses a range of boycott and sanction actions.'”

“On any one night in the West End, there will be numerous understudies on stage, because actors in long-running productions quite rightly have holidays as part of their contracts, and nobody can help it if they get ill. For the understudies themselves, who are often likely to have smaller roles in the production the rest of the time – it’s a chance to step up from out of the chorus to play a main role and test themselves.”

“Girl. If I could have a reading a day when I’m working on a play, I’d do it. I need workshop time like I need water and sunshine. If I just wanted to hide away and write, I would have been a novelist. Playwriting is a collaborative effort — don’t ever forget that.”

“In theatre, there’s typically somewhere between 90 minutes to two and a half hours to establish characters, take them through a plot and wrap up their story. … A successful television series operates under a different model: most episodes are only between 30 and 60 minutes, but the lives and stories of the characters can go on for years, sometimes adding up to hundreds of hours.” Howard Sherman looks at some upcoming attempts to bridge this gap.

Stan Lai, the country’s leading playwright-director: “The acute confrontational stance of the two opposing parties has created a fatigue and distaste toward politics in society in general, including the artistic community. … There is no space for objective and rational discourse. That is why artists in Taiwan today naturally gravitate away from dealing with political issues.”

Charles Isherwood: “It’s not unusual for theater, like many of the arts, to address a pressing social or political issue. But what strikes me as unusual this fall is that most of such work comes from notable black female playwrights:” Sarah Jones, Anna Deavere Smith, Lynn Nottage, and Suzan-Lori Parks.